A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK
MEMBERS of the Houses of Lords and Commons spent a pleasant day at the air display at Northolt on Tuesday at some small expense to the taxpayer—for they were given a most excellent lunchecn.
But some of them at any rate came back disposed to ask, like the Disciples, to what purpose was this waste, without receiving a convincing answer. The display was unquestionably impressive—the machines, of un- revealed performance, that stayed on the ground looked as formidable as those that flew—but no ordinary M.P. was qualified to form any intelligent opinion of their efficiency. Something flashed across the sky ; it might have been at 300 miles an hour, it might have been at 400 ; you believed what you were told. If you had stayed at Westminster and been told that a machine at Northolt was doing 400 m.p.h., the effect would have been the same. But one element in the Northolt display did very genuinely impress Members. That was the morale of the officers and men, with whom they had a good deal of conversation. Perhaps it was worth going from Westminster to be assured that whatever the machines might be they were not better than the men. And the men deserved the recognition and appreciation which the presence of the M.P.s signified. For they probably think quite something of M.P.s.
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